Another blogging milestone will soon be reached by Reprographics 101, if I don't drop dead

If I don’t drop dead within the next few days, Reprographics 101 will have achieved another milestone (of sorts), 900 posts, since I started Reprographics 101 on February 27, 2009.

Below, I’m going to share with you:

The first post I did, when I started Reprographics 101

Visitor statistics, since I first started Reprographics 101 – as reported by Google Analytics. Please note that the “analytics” service was, for some unknown reason, turned off for a period of about 4-6 months. If the analytics service had been working during that period, the numbers would be higher

My comments, from the perspective of the author of Reprographics 101 (that’s me!)

Initial post on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2009

“Initial remarks about my blog”

After spending (investing!) nearly all of my adult life (39 years and counting) in and around the reprographics business and industry - - and being one of the most opinionated people in the reprographics industry (at least that I'm aware of), I've decided to start a blog to share my opinions. (One of my ex-partners said, in the past, that I'm not "opinionated" but, rather, that I'm "arrogant". My take is that he said that because he doesn't know the difference between being "arrogant" and being "highly opinionated.") Whatever.

I should not fail to mention that my favorite comedian is Lewis Black. That should give you some sense of my sense of humor. Although I'm intending to use this blog to share my thoughts and opinions about the reprographics business and industry, it is highly likely (if not a given) that I will rant and rave about other topics.

Google Analytics reports these numbers (from inception through October 20, 2011, which, as I mentioned, does not include visitor activity when the analytics service was turned off.)

13,127 Visitors

30,976 Visits

55,907 Pageviews

30,976 visits came from 119 countries/territories

This country/territory (the U.S.) sent 25,281 visits via 52 regions

Statistics for “visits” from top 10 U.S. states:

State	Rank	# of visits
California	1	5,544
Florida	2	2,367
Illinois	3	2,043
New York	4	1,503
Texas	5	1,333
North Carolina	6	1,155
Massachusetts	7	900
Wisconsin	8	838
Maryland	9	804
Pennsylvania	10	775

My comments from the perspective of the author of Reprographics 101…..

Although there are other blogs devoted to the reprographics business and industry, I’m pretty sure that Reprographics 101 is the only blog authored by an individual or company not active in the reprographics business. Which “sort of” makes Reprographics 101 an “independent” blog and, some would say, an “unbiased” blog. In spite of the fact that I know a lot of reprographers (both here in the U.S. and around the world), only one reprographics blogger has mentioned – and provided a link to – Reprographic 101 – and that particular blogger (Jared Willis) is no longer working in the reprographics industry. It is, of course, frustrating that other reprographics-bloggers won’t mention the existence of Reprographics 101. Perhaps they don’t want the competition? Perhaps they don’t want others to know about Reprographics 101? Why that is, I haven’t a clue.

According to Google Analytics, which captures visitor statistics, Reprographics 101 gets anywhere from 100 to 225 “visitors” each day, during the week, and about 1/3^rd to 1/2 that many on weekends. That’s not a lot of visitors. Which often moves me to think hard about continuing Reprographics 101. But, nearly every time I think about discontinuing Reprographics 101, I get an e-mail from one of my blog-visitors telling me “great job – keep it up.” (or an e-mail along those lines.) So, I “truck on”.

I seldom get “comments” on articles I post on Reprographics 101. I’ve mentioned this before. Is that due to “reprographer-apathy”? Or, is it due to reprographers really wishing that Reprographics 101 would simply go away?

Some of my blog-visitors have suggested that I open up Reprographics 101 to advertising. I’d do that, but have not done that because I haven’t figured out how to do that.

I’ve considered adding a “forum” (or linking a forum) to Reprographics 101, but I haven’t figured out how to do that.

I’ve considered adding RSS feeds to web-sites that contain news about the reprographics industry and about the A/E/C industry, but I haven’t, as of yet, figured out how to do that. But, I plan on testing that over the next couple of weeks.

Okay, that’s enough rambling for today. Thank you.